Tag Archives: sushi

VEDA continues with some Pokemon! When we were in Japan two months ago, we visited the biggest Pokemon Center in Japan. It’s called Pokemon Center MEGA TOKYO, and it’s in Ikebukuro. We also visited Ginza, Tsukiji, ate some sushi, and went to our old neighbourhood. All of that is in this video. Check it out!

Do you want to go to Pokemon Center MEGA TOKYO? Let me know in the comments section below.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Ever eaten raw beef? Of course, Valentine’s Day and raw beef have nothing to do with each other, do they?

In the above picture, you can see sushi. The bottom row is tuna and salmon. The middle row is red snapper and shrimp. But the top row is beef. That’s right, beef sushi. The salmon tasted excellent. The tuna was very good. Shrimp and red snapper were also very good. But how was the beef? Well, it had very little flavour. I’ve tried raw beef before, and I remember that it was rather flavourless. It gains its flavour when it’s cooked. I probably won’t have beef sushi again.

Unlike pork and chicken, it’s safe to eat raw beef. It’s unlikely to carry salmonella. And this is why it’s popular to eat rare beef.

Another week has gone, which means it’s time for more videos! This past week has seen some fairly popular videos on my main channel. However, on my vlog channel, I got a little behind. Time to catch up!

First up is my main channel. I discovered something called Authortube, so I did an Authortube Newbie Tag video.

Following that, I did my always popular Booktube Shoutouts video for the month. I imitated the Booktubers I talked about, too!

Having seen plenty of awkward newbies on Booktube, I decided to make a video about how to not be awkward. I put a lot of humour into it.

Continuing The Star Trek Project, I posted the next episode of Star Trek.

A Taste of Japan continued with a visit to the beautiful Hamarikyu Gardens. Definitely worth seeing this place.

And then I reviewed MoonRush, a book I wasn’t impressed with.

And finally, I talked about why I chose science fiction and fantasy to write in the video edition of Authors Answer.

Moving on to my vlog channel, I posted 5 videos in an attempt to catch up. I’m still a little behind, but slowly catching up.

In the first video of the week, I talked about NaNoWriMo, and how I was too tired to write.

And then my wife and I went to an amazing sushi restaurant. Some of the best sushi you can find in Edmonton.

A movie next summer has me very interested. And that’s Wonder Woman. I talked about it and the trailer.

I’m still feeling awkward in Canada. Many things still feel a bit strange, as if I still had reverse culture shock.

And finally, a vlog that covered three days and each day had different weather.

That’s all for this week. I’ll be working on catching up on my vlog channel. Also, I have some ideas for doing science videos on my vlog channel once a week. I’m looking forward to giving that a try!

Interesting night it’s been so far. I really have no topic for this post, since I’m dead tired and have had nothing but trouble for a couple hours. It’s 2 in the morning and I just finished eating my dinner. Luckily, it’s my day off tomorrow.

As usual, I got home, and I needed to put my daughter to bed. She has this ritual where she takes three stuffed animals/dolls to bed with her and has a book read to her before she sleeps. She needs to cuddle with me. Normally, there’s no trouble getting her to sleep. But tonight, she had other plans. For about two hours, she kept trying to kick the blankets off of her, while I kept putting them back on. It’s not hot in here. It’s actually quite cold. You can thank Japanese insulation for that. The blankets are very important. But she would have none of them. I wrestled with her for two hours, trying to get her to stay asleep and stop uncovering and freezing herself. I didn’t get to eat dinner until 1 am.

This has also delayed my planned upload of a video, which is the beginning of a vlog about our move to Canada. I recorded it while I was on my way to work, but I need to edit and upload it first. And I had also planned to write a book review tonight! But I’m so tired, I think it’ll have to wait. I’ll do it sometime tomorrow.

While I ate, I watched a video on YouTube made by some guy in Edmonton who records himself driving to catch bad drivers (and presumably for insurance purposes). He drives a truck. It seems almost every Edmonton dashcammer I’ve watched on YouTube is driving a truck. Ugh. And I realised I could easily tell if he was from the city or country. He was definitely from the country, because he had that Canadian countryside twang that’s somewhat of a mix between midwestern US, Texan, and Atlantic Canada accents. People who were raised in the city or a town near a major city don’t have that accent. They have a more standard North American average TV news accent, if that makes any sense. But while watching the video, I also realised how much space there is in Edmonton. Everything is so wide, buildings are incredibly low and rather unattractive/utilitarian. I mean commercial buildings. The buildings in Japan aren’t any better, but at least there aren’t huge parking lots everywhere. Oh well, it’s easier to drive there, I think. I look forward to that. From what I remember, drivers in Canada tend to be a bit more lawful. There are red light runners all the time in Japan.

And I saw this post by S. R. Carrillo. Welcome her back to blogging. She needs to get her spot back in Commentition. I also noticed that Tracey Lynn Tobin has rebooted her YouTube channel, now called Tracey’s Basement. Here’s a post with one of her first reboot videos. I think I’m going to spend some time reading and leaving comments on her blog tonight.

At work, a student told me that when I talk about sushi, I look very happy. Do I really love sushi so much that it affects how I talk? Wow. Now I feel self-conscious about it.

And finally, my daughter’s been saying weird things. A couple nights ago, she was drawing a picture, and she started making kissing sounds. She said, “Kiss party! Kiss party!” and made more kissing sounds. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

I subscribe to a YouTube channel called Texan in Tokyo, and they made a video called 3 Popular “Japanese Things” that don’t exist in Japan! Watch it first, and then I’ll add some of my comments about these three things.

Finished? Okay, let’s look at these things.

First of all is the sweet green tea. I’ve heard that’s become common in North America, but since I’ve been in Japan for nearly eleven years, I really have no idea about it. However, that stuff just does not exist here. I can confirm it. I’ve told people about it, and they thought it was strange. And why would you want it sweetened anyway? Real green tea is great!

Second is the hibachi grill restaurants. As it said in the video, they exist in Okinawa, but the rest of Japan doesn’t have them. There’s something called teppanyaki, but it’s not the same. You don’t see the performance done by chefs at your table like in hibachi grill restaurants in North America. Actually, one of my favourite restaurants is Japanese Village, which is a teppan grill restaurant, as they call it, but it is not. My wife found the whole experience strange when she went there. None of the food was Japanese. And there’s no such thing as shabu shabu soup. Shabu shabu is a kind of Japanese cuisine, but it’s not a soup.

And the third one was the North American version of sushi. I agree, roll sushi (maki) is more popular in North America, but is not so common in Japan. You can find it in supermarkets and sushi restaurants, but they are not the most popular. Nigiri sushi (fish on top of a rice ball) is real sushi. Thankfully, Tokyo Express in Edmonton serves plenty of nigiri sushi.

A lot of this is what makes me want to search out authentic Japanese food in Edmonton. Places that are authentic will likely see business from me more often.

What are some stereotypes you have about Japan? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll let you know what the reality is.

My sister’s first night in Japan, and we went to Sushiro. It’s a kaitenzushi restaurant, or a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. But what I’d like to show you is what I tried. These are all new dishes at Sushiro.

First up is bacon sushi. That’s right, bacon! What a wonderful combination. Of course, it was cooked.

Next up is chicken sushi. This is also cooked. It was quite good, and it included the skin.

And finally, for dessert, wasabi ice cream! I’ve been wanting to try it for years, and now I could!

It’s white! I was kind of expecting green.

So, how was it? It started off being kind of like vanilla. I didn’t find it hot or even taste like wasabi. I thought it was quite mild. But with each mouthful of ice cream, I could feel the kick of the ice cream. It got stronger and stronger the more I ate. I really liked it!

Living in Japan, I’ve enjoyed a lot of Japanese food. Of course, it is authentic. However, my family will be moving to Canada next year, and we’ll have cravings for Japanese food. Real Japanese food.

There are a lot of Japanese restaurants in Edmonton, but are they truly authentic? I can safely say that Edo Japan is not authentic. Doesn’t even seem Japanese to me. Japanese Village had two different menus last time I was there, a teppan menu and traditional menu. The teppan menu was French and Japanese fusion with a lot of things that weren’t Japanese at all. The traditional menu seems to be much more Japanese. But things seem to have changed since I was last there. And then there’s Izakaya Tomo. My wife and I looked at the menu, and we found that the owner is Japanese, and a lot of the menu is quite authentic. We’re very interested in trying it out.

So, what I’ve decided to do is a little project where we eat at every Japanese restaurant in Edmonton, and anywhere else we go. We’ll check out the authenticity of the food, and I’ll write blog posts about each place. I won’t only write about the authenticity, but also say whether the food is good or not. That’s more important, I think, but for anyone who wants to try out truly Japanese cuisine, it’ll be a very useful resource.